Lootera is like a Monet landscape. Picturesque and poignant at the same time. It takes a simple O Henry story – The Last Leaf, and adapts it to a period setting in Bengal and North East India. It’s a work of art. Slow, deliberate and introspective. It’s one of the best films you’ll watch this year. It’s a triumph of its director’s vision. And a win for the performances of its lead actors.

The best literary works are essentially simple stories. What makes them great, memorable or unique is innovative wordplay. Great cinema is no different. Sometimes the way you tell the story makes all the difference and in case of Lootera, director Vikramaditya Motwane pulls all the right cinematic punches. Whether it’s his intentional hark back to Guru Dutt’s Baazi (1951) or the scene where Sonakshi Sinha plays with the bulb switch, this film looks like a perfect homage to the golden age of Indian cinema. Dutt would’ve been proud. A large part of the credit should also go to the cinematographer Mahendra Shetty and the art direction team. Not only have they got the period feel right, they’ve captured the mood of O Henry’s imagery just the way it should’ve been. Full marks to Amit Trivedi’s lyrical music that adds a great old school charm to the film.

The simple story deals with a thug named Varun (Ranveer Singh) who arrives on the estate of a ’50s zamindar with the intentions of ripping him off. He falls in love with the zamindar’s daughter and things snow ball from there into a bevy of emotions. The beauty of Lootera lies in the fact that it intertwines tragedy and irony with wit and humour. It’s has moments of genuine humour and it has moments that wrench your heart’s vessels. All of this happens because it explores its characters relationships with a new perspective. Hindi films have taught us that lovers can run around trees. But Lootera shows you their lives can be as grim and grey as snowy evenings. And that life itself can be as frail as autumn leaves. The allegories working in Lootera are subliminal. Satyajit Ray would’ve been proud.

There’s one minor rough edge though. The ending is a bit of a misfit. Revealing any details would be giving away spoilers but the final cut at the end leaves you with an unrequited set of emotions. The reality would be a lot more inconvenient.

Having said that, everything about this dark love story seems right thanks to Sonakshi Sinha’s performance. If you know her as the 100-crore girl who shakes and swings at the drop of a hat you’re in for a surprise. Her nuanced act tugs at your tear glands. A good compliment to Sonakshi’s anchoring performance is Ranveer Singh’s underplay. He proves he’s an actor to reckon with. And he does so despite having a character in shadow of Sonakshi’s Pakhi. Supporting performances by Barun Chanda (playing Sonakshi’s Zamindar father), Vikrant Massey (Ranveer’s best friend) and Adil Hussain (the tough as nails cop) are all top notch too.

Lootera is a must watch. It’s cinematic art. We should make more movies like this.